The Sociologist's Dojo: Pop Culture is Soft Power: Comic Con International Recap!

Comic-Con International was this weekend in San Diego, CA. Once again, as in years past we geeks and self described nerds flock to this city as our own personal mecca; or it used to be personal. Now, millions of people the world over come to Comic con not just to celebrate comics and superheroes, indeed it has become a veritable Shangri La of popular culture. With this title comes the unification and amalgamation of entertainment industries from books and comics, movies, TV, video games, web content, and everything in between.
Sociologically speaking, this is interesting on a number of different levels. You could do an ethnographic study on the very esoteric nature of the subculture of the con; focusing on notions of devotion and self sacrifice (e.g. waiting in line for 27 hours to see the Sat Hall H panels thereby missing other interesting announcements). You could do a study on the presentation of self of cosplayers looking at how individuals who work to embody their favorite characters are not only quite unique and creative (using it as a form of self expression) but also spend a lot of money. Unfortunately, on the darker side of cosplay is the reality of sexual discrimination that stems non just from the construction of masculinity through the objectification of women, coupled with the male gaze that is already informing the way that female characters are drawn in comics in the first place. You could even do a study on mob and crowd mentality due to the sheer numbers of people who participate in the event. Yes, Comic Con is quite Sociological. The Sociologist dojo will be attempting to go next year Comic con 2015. If that happens I will be presenting daily break downs of my experience and Sociological comics odyssey. But for now you all will have to settle with a highlighted recap of the events and festivities.

I have divided the segments of interest into three categories: The Good, The Bad and The Meh.

Since I am a cynical Sociologist I will start with The Bad.

The Bad

- Warner Bros Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Panel
As many of you know I have been quite vocal about how bad I believe this film to be and my reservations with Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman None of what I saw did anything to saw coming out of comic con did anything to sway me from those reservations. Perhaps I hate Zack Snyder too much to be objective....as I see him as the embodiment of the Death for the Four Horsemen of the film Apocalypse. Below you can find the leaked video of a confrontation between Batman and Superman (under whelming) and the first picture of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

What is up with the TDKR Armor...Snyder is all about the costumes...so superficial.

NOT A FAN OF THE HEELS, OR THE SHORT(ER) "SKIRT" (I know its based on roman infantry) And as I predicted, she wasn't asked to bulk up (work out and tone up? Yes. but bulk up? No.).

- The Legend of Korra was pulled from Nickelodeon and now is now going to release the rest of the season online...THANK YOU INTERNET PIRATES! you have made it difficult for us to get more Avatar related shows in the future:

To ease the pain here is the Cast at Comic Con singing the classic "Secret Tunnel" song